A file is blocked when you open or save the file in a Microsoft Office program. In this situation, you may receive an error message that resembles one of the following:

You are attempting to open a file that is blocked by your registry policy setting.

You are attempting to open a file type <File Type> that has been blocked by your File Block settings in the Trust Center.

You are attempting to open a file that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by your registry policy setting.

You are attempting to save a file that is blocked by your registry policy setting.

You are attempting to save a file type <File Type> that has been blocked by your File Block settings in the Trust Center.

If you are a Small Business customer, find additional troubleshooting and learning resources at the Support for Small Business site.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, try the following general resolutions to change the File Block settings based on the version of Office that you installed:

For Office 2013 or Office 2010

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Change the File Block settings to disable the restriction of certain file types:

Click File > Options.

If you cannot open a file in Office 2013 or Office 2010, open a blank document to start the Office application. For example, if you cannot open a Word file, open a new document in Word 2013 or Word 2010 to see the option.

In the Options window, click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.

In the Trust Center window, click File Block Settings, and then clear the "Open" or "Save" check box for the file type that you want to open or save.Note Clear the option means allow user to open or save the file. Check the option means block the file.

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Click OK two times.

Try to open or save the file that was blocked again.

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For Office 2007 or Office 2003

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There is no "Trust Center" in Office 2007 or Office 2003. Therefore, you have to change the value of the FileOpenBlock registry subkey to disable the restriction of certain file types.

Important Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry

(http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-the-registry)

for restoration in case problems occur.

Exit Office.

Click Start, click
Run, type regedit in the
Open box, and then click
OK.

The issue can also occur when you open an embedded or linked Office file in an Office application. For example, you have a Visio object embedded in a Word document. When you try to open the Visio object, you receive a similar error message in Word. To resolve this issue, you must change the File Block settings in the application that owns the blocked file type. In this example, you must change the File Block settings in Visio instead of in Word. If the error message mentions Excel file type, go to Excel to change the File Block settings.